nameback

Rename files based on their metadata. Automatically extracts titles, dates, and descriptions from your files to give them meaningful names.

What it does

Scans a folder and renames files using metadata embedded in the files themselves:

• Photos → Renamed by date taken
• PDFs → Renamed by document title
• Videos → Renamed by creation date or title
• HTML files → Renamed by page title

Before: IMG_2847.jpg, document.pdf, f2577888.html After: 2024-03-15_sunset.jpg, Annual_Report_2024.pdf, Important_safety_information.html

Quick Start

# Install from crates.io
cargo install nameback

# Preview what would change (safe, no files modified)
nameback /path/to/folder --dry-run

# Actually rename the files
nameback /path/to/folder

Requirements

• Rust - Install from rust-lang.org (for installation)
• exiftool - brew install exiftool (macOS) or apt install libimage-exiftool-perl (Linux)

Options

--dry-run      # Preview changes before applying
--verbose      # Show detailed progress
--skip-hidden  # Skip hidden files (like .DS_Store)

Safety Features

✓ Preview mode - Always test with --dry-run first ✓ No overwrites - Skips files if destination already exists ✓ Duplicate handling - Adds _1, _2 suffixes automatically ✓ Filename sanitization - Removes special characters safely

Examples

# Preview changes in your Photos folder
nameback ~/Pictures --dry-run

# Rename recovered files from PhotoRec
nameback /tmp/photorec

# Process with detailed logging
nameback ~/Documents --verbose

Building from Source

If you want to build from source instead of installing from crates.io:

git clone https://github.com/h4x0r/nameback.git
cd nameback
cargo build --release
./target/release/nameback /path/to/folder

How it works

1. Scans directory recursively
2. Detects file type (image, document, video, audio)
3. Extracts metadata using exiftool
4. Generates clean filename from title/date
5. Renames file (or shows preview in dry-run mode)

What gets renamed?

Files with useful metadata get renamed:

• Photos - JPEG, PNG with EXIF data (date taken, description)
• Office documents - DOCX, XLSX, PPTX with title or author
• OpenDocument - ODT, ODS, ODP with title or author
• Videos - MP4, AVI with creation date or title
• HTML files - Files with title tags
• PDFs - PDFs with Title metadata (⚠️ see limitation below)

Files without useful metadata are skipped:

• Scanned PDFs - Only have scanner/printer names (e.g., "Canon iPR C165")
• Plain text - TXT, CSV, MD files have no embedded metadata
• System files - DLLs, temp files, executables
• Recovered files - Files that lost metadata during recovery

Troubleshooting

No files renamed?

• Run with --verbose to see why files are skipped
• Many files simply lack useful metadata

Permission denied?

• Ensure you have write access to the directory
• Try running with appropriate permissions

Want to undo?

• nameback doesn't keep backups - use version control
• Always test with --dry-run first
• Consider backing up important files before renaming

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details

Created by Albert Hui (@4n6h4x0r)

Built with Claude Code